Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we spread our fish-tank weed.
That’s a way of announcing to the as yet unaware that Alum Creek Lake has a hydrilla situation that could become a wider problem for anglers and other users.
“First discovered during one of our fish surveys in the fall of 2021, it has since become a common sight in most of the coves on the lake from June-October,” reported Nick Radabaugh, the Ohio Division of Wildlife fisheries management supervisor for the central Ohio district.
The park staff has partnered with the wildlife division, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Mark Warman, an aquatic plants expert with Cleveland Metroparks, on efforts to control the spread of the invasive plant.
Three years into the battle, which is only in its early stages, the plant appears to be winning.
“Hydrilla is … seemingly still spreading,” Radabaugh wrote in an email.
Although they’ve become increasingly routine, invasive plants or animals that manage to sneak into the local mix of local flora or fauna are rarely welcome. Hydrilla verticillata, a native of Australia and southeast Asia, is described in a wildlife division fact sheet as a “highly undesirable aquatic plant.”